Blackstone to pick up stake in two Indiabullsoffice assets

Private equity giant Blackstone Group has entered into definitive agreements with listed developer Indiabulls Real Estate Ltd to buy up to 50% stake in two commercial properties in Gurugram. In a stock-exchange filing, Indiabulls Real Estate said that it was parting with the stake at a combined enterprise value of Rs 464 crore (around $66 million). The two office assets are in the UdyogVihar locality and have a leasable area of 784,000 sq-ft, Indiabulls said the deal was aimed at expanding its joint venture portfolio with Blackstone. In March this year, Blackstone had divested 50% stake each in Indiabulls Properties Pvt. Ltd and Indiabulls Real Estate Company at an enterprise value of Rs 9,500 crore (around $1.46 billion) in one of the biggest private equity deals in the Indian real estate sector. In effect, it shed stakes in Indiabulls Finance Centre and One Indiabulls Centre, two key commercial properties in Mumbai. Shortly after that, Blackstone Group agreed to buy a commercial property in Chennai from Indiabulls Real Estate Ltd for Rs 850 crore ($123 million). In the run-up to the three deals struck this year, Indiabulls Real Estate had in 2017 streamlined its commercial properties and brought all its commercial assets under Indiabulls Commercial Assets Ltd. At the time of hiving off that business, the company had said that Indiabulls Commercial will undertake the commercial and leasing business and focus on the annuity business through rental income of its existing portfolio, projects under development and future projects.